Writing my way around New England

craft beer

I’ve been pretty excited by what I’ve been seeing in my neighborhood lately. Down the street from my house is the new home of Great Rhythm Brewing Company. In fact, I can see their new HQ from the window of my office as I write this. I’m a big fan of pale ales, and Great Rhythm’s Resonation Pale Ale has been a solid go-to beer in our house for a while now. The tasting room is opening “Summer 2016,” and I expect I’ll be there quite a bit.

A short flight at Liar’s Bench Beer Co.

Flying a little more under the radar is Liar’s Bench Beer Co., a nano-brewery based in an old plumbing parts warehouse on Islington Street — and just a quick jog from my house. I happened to be around the day it opened, working hard to repaint practically every surface in my home. What goes great after a hard day or working around the house? A beer.

We sampled all four taps. I liked the John Grady Kolsch (5% ABV, 21 BU), a smooth, light brew that efficiently took the edge off of my post-painting sore muscles. My husband and I were also fond of the Bitter Lad, a “New English ESB” (5% ABV, 30 BU), a traditional British beer with an infusion of American hops — a perfect mix of malty and bitter. We took a growler home of that one.

I also have to give props to Topanga (6.5% ABV, 50 BU). Yes, it’s named after the “Boy Meets World” character and yes, it’s an IPA. Creative beer names can get tiresome, but it’s hard not to love this reference, or this beer.

The space is open, hip and re-purposes the industrial space well. Think Oxbow in Portland, Maine, only much smaller and more natural light. Confirmation from the owner the tasting room is kid-friendly was happy news, as the mother of a 3-year-old. “Come on, sweety. Let’s walk down to the brewery for a visit.”

I’ve loved Portland, Maine for a long time. It’s where I got engaged and where I’ve spent nearly every birthday since. It’s a city I visit with friends and go to visit friends. I walk the waterfront and the Eastern Promenade. I eat and drink and repeat. It’s almost criminal how many great places there are to get a beer, a cocktail you’ve never tried before or a dish that will leave you licking the plate. When my friend and editor of Market Watch magazine asked if I wanted to write a profile about the city’s beer, wine and cocktail scene, I didn’t have to think about it for long.

I contacted dozens of restaurants, bars, distilleries and breweries. The ones featured are places I love, but I easily could have included more. It’s a story that helped me make some great contacts in Portland and one I hope leads to more profiles of the city.

“The Other Portland” is only available in PDF form, so please click through if you’d like to read the rest.

The Other Portland

Craft beer and an emerging cocktail culture define Maine’s largest city

Walk into Pai Men Miyake, a noodle bar in Portland, Maine’s Longfellow Square, and one of the first things you see is the craft beer list. On a prominently displayed chalkboard adjacent to the front door, guests can scan the list of 12 draft beers when they walk in. Half of the venue’s taps and six of its 12 bottles are reserved for regional craft beers, which are regularly rotated, offering patrons an opportunity to try the latest local expressions.

Steaming bowls of ramen, such as the Kimchee Beef with braised short rib ($13), are commonly ordered with a Mainebrewed draft like Bissell Brothers’ The Substance ale ($7 a 16-ounce pour) or Oxbow Farmhouse pale ale ($6 a 12-ounce pour), says bar manager Jack Van Paepeghem. The menu also includes Japanese beers, such as Sapporo, which is $3 a 16-ounce pour during happy hour.

A casual Japanese restaurant may not be the first place Portland visitors look to find a robust craft beer program, but Pai Men Miyake is considered a top spot for sampling local beer and was on Eater.com’s 2013 list of “14 Essential Maine Craft Beer Bars.” Van Paepeghem says customers usually look for locally made beers, whether it’s a Pilsner or a darker brew. “My responsibility is to keep a balance,” he says. “I could have 10 IPAs if I wanted, but that’s not my style.”

Heather Sanborn, co-owner of Rising Tide Brewing Co. and president of the Maine Brewers’ Guild, says Portland residents expect a well-curated craft beer menu stocked with Maine products at local bars and restaurants. “New places in the Portland area need to have a significant beer program,” Sanborn says. “They’re not so much putting Bud Light on tap, but instead building a strong regional craft beer plan. It’s become as important as having a good wine list—or maybe more important.”

If you lived in the Boston area during the first three months of 2015, you surely weren’t drinking “spring beers.” Buried in more than six feet of snow left most of us New Englanders sucking down heavy winter beers deep into the season, despite what the seasonal beer calendar said. I’m sure spring happened somewhere in the United States and I hope they enjoyed my take on the role spring seasonals play in craft brewing industry — which I wrote last fall.

Spring Forward

Brewers use spring seasonals to audition innovative beers

Winter may mean snow and ice for the northern half of the country, but in the world of seasonal craft beer, spring has begun. Typically launched in January, spring beers have the poorest sales performance of the seasonals, but brewers say that’s no reason to ignore the opportunities they offer. Craft beer producers often use spring to come up with interesting and innovative brews.

Beer drinkers have become accustomed to expecting certain products during the year. The end of summer brings pumpkin beers and malty Oktoberfest brews. Winter and the holiday season highlight darker, flavorful beers, and when the days are warm, drinkers can choose from a wide selection of lighter summer beers. But there are no expectations with spring beer styles, which may be part of the reason for sluggish sales. Craft beer sales dip during the first three months of the year, rebounding just as summer beers hit the shelves, according to Nielsen Scantrack data.

“Historically, brewers would make lighter beers in the summer and heartier ones for sustenance in the winter,” says Jennifer Glanville, brewer and manager of the Samuel Adams Brewery in Boston. “They also used seasonal ingredients they had on hand, such as fruit, herbs and spices, to enhance their brews. Although nowadays we have the ability to make beers with a variety of ingredients year-round, there’s still something special about celebrating a certain time of year using seasonal ingredients.”

It’s been more than a year since I toured the new Smuttynose Brewing Co., facility with Peter Egelston. I got a look at the plant just before they began production and way before the new restaurant, Hayseed, had opened. This research resulted in the article below, featured in the industry magazine, Market Watch. I was impressed with Egelston’s openness and the facility’s high-tech approach to beer making. We discussed how technique and technology influence the beer’s flavor, other endeavors like the Portsmouth Brewery, as well as some business philosophy. The story is only available to me in PDF, so make sure to click through to read the rest.

Brewing Balance

With the opening of a new facility in Hampton, New Hampshire, Smuttynose Brewing Co. aims big while maintaining its craft character

When Smuttynose Brewing Co. finished the first of-the-art brewery in Hampton, New Hampshire, at the end of February, it wasn’t just an inaugural run on new equipment. This batch had been nearly 10 years in the making. Smuttynose founder and president Peter Egelston began searching for a new location in 2004 to replace the original 25,000-square-foot Portsmouth brewing facility, an inefficient, dark and cramped space tucked away in the depths of a light industrial development. Egelston’s first choice was a crumbling riverside mill building in nearby Newmarket, a popular off-campus hub for college students attending the University of New Hampshire. He approached the town leaders and was welcomed with open arms—at first.

With the boom in small craft breweries, it seems like every small town has their own tasting room stocked with beer brewed fresh out back. State tourism boards have noticed too, and are trying to boost their appeal by promoting their locally made ales and lagers alongside other attractions, such as skiing, hiking, and even work conferences. It’s not that hard of a sell. Who wouldn’t want to throw in a craft brewery tour on their vacation? For the story, click the link below.

I don’t know if it’s because beer is perceived as a “dude thing” or if it’s because beer making and tasting has become a haven for snobs, contrarians and haters, but I find writing about beer very intimidating. Coming up with the words to describe the beer before me is far more of a struggle than writing about wine or spirits. The accepted language for those beverages is so much more forgiving and subjective, but with beer, if you don’t have your hops, malt and yeast palate honed razor sharp, you open yourself up to rigorous ridicule.

That’s probably why I took a more nostalgic look at the new Dover brewery, 7th Settlement. The quality of beer, the menu and the over all feel of the bar and dining room is such a gargantuan leap above the shit-holes where I once drank in Dover, I felt it needed mentioning. You will see me shy away from getting too deep into the beer tasting notes, for the above reason. No amount of liquid courage this day could conquer my fear of the critics.

7th Settlement picks up the craft beer mantle in Dover

When I last lived in Dover, there were very few places to go for a beer. This is many years ago, before the Barley Pub and the Brick House. Those places had just opened by the time I packed up my belongings and moved to Portsmouth. In the years since, many of my Portsmouth friends have moved back to Dover, a far more affordable place to live and do business, and as they’ve gotten to know Dover, I too have gotten to know Dover again.

I was sad to hear the Barley Pub closed down earlier this year. That establishment deserves a lot of the credit when it comes to making Dover nightlife what it is today, proving that a chill place to grab a beer and listen to live music could be done in Dover. Up until the Barley Pub opened, it was a town of rowdy beer halls and sports bars.

The Barely Pub will be missed by many, but its departure was almost simultaneous to the opening of 7th Settlement brewery at 47 Washington Street. Founded by two young entrepreneurs, Dave Boynton and Josh Henry, 7th Settlement is billed as New Hampshire’s first “community supported brewery.” This new kind of brewery runs similarly to community supported agriculture, where patrons buy in to the business of producing an edible product, reaping special benefits in return.

The founders are dedicated to supporting local farmers when it comes to making their beer, and when it comes to the food they serve in the brew pub. A few weeks ago, I met some friends there and was knocked out by the stylishly revamped mill space. High ceilings, exposed brick walls, room-length bar with plenty of high-top tables for meeting and eating with friends. In the back was a separated space, which I soon learned was for families. While this may seem somewhat cruel to quarantine parties with young children to a separate eating area, my husband and I breathed a sigh of relief when we realized we could let our daughter squeal and run around the table without child-free parties staring us down.